Our Learning

   Welcome to summer term! Our topic this term for Year 1 is Hot and Cold. A main focus of this topic will be Geography where we will be thinking about the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles and increasing our knowledge of where places are in the world by looking at maps and globes. This topic will also include a Science focus learning about animals where we will be identifying and naming a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals and thinking about which animals are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. We will also continue to think about weather and the seasons and how day length varies. We will be investigating temperature by looking at how hot and cold temperatures are.

In History we will be learning about significant individuals including Ernest Shackleton, Grace Darling and David Attenborough. Our Art sessions will continue to focus on print making where we will make prints of animal markings and mono prints of plants and flowers. We will also have a focus on 3D form where we will create a class sculpture park. In DT we will be covering the cooking and nutrition element of the curriculum by designing and making our own smoothies. In our Computing sessions we will work together to produce a talking book linked to our English work and we will also be filming the steps linked to our food work in DT. In RE we will be finding out what it means to belong to a church or mosque. We will then be thinking about the question ‘Who brought messages about God and what did they say?’

In PSHCE we will look at the Zones of Regulation to help children with understanding their emotions and will continue to build on and refer to these. We will also continue to use the NHS Mindmate resources particularly focusing on ‘Solving Problems and ‘Being the Same’. In Music we will continue to use the Charanga scheme to play games, learn about the dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch, etc.), sing and play instruments. During our PE sessions we will continue to build on our games skills and develop our athletics skills in preparation for Sports Day at the end of term.

We continue to have a daily English focus which includes phonics, spelling, reading, writing, handwriting and speaking and listening. Our writing will include producing riddles and information leaflets about animals and looking at poetry. We will also use the story ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers as a basis for our own story writing. In Maths our learning will begin with looking at early multiplication and division skills (grouping, sharing and counting in 2s, 5s and 10s); fractions (finding halves and quarters of shapes and small amounts), place value of numbers to 100 and then a focus on time (o’clock, half-past) and money (recognising coins and notes and solving simple problems related to money).

This term the children will also take part in the DfE Y1 Phonics Screening Check. In preparation for this we will be practising reading alien/nonsense words where children use their phonics to decode made up words (as well as real ones!) The check will be done in a relaxed child-friendly way and we do not let the children know that it is a test. You will receive more details about this nearer the time. Each day the children will continue to be given the very valuable opportunity to follow their own interests with ‘area time’ in the areas of provision, exploring and learning for themselves.